In today's reading, I didn't have as many insights as yesterday... But then, of course, those first sixteen chapters of Genesis cover A LOT of ground and history.
-I was first struck by how long Abram/Abraham had to wait AFTER Ishmael before Isaac came along... fourteen years!! He was 86 when Ishmael was born and 100 when Isaac was born. That's a long time to wait on a promise. Abram waited a total of 24 years before he saw God fulfill His promise!
-Genesis 19:17-30 tells an interesting story about Lot and his family. Before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels told Lot, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." Lot's response was to beg to go to Zoar, a little city nearby. "I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die... Oh, let me escape thither [to Zoar], (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live."
The angel listened to Lot's plea and spared Zoar for Lot's sake. It took all night to get there, but when the sun rose, Lot and his family were safe at Zoar when God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. Shockingly, Lot's wife, already safe and protected in Zoar, "looked back from behind him [Lot], and she became a pillar of salt."
Now pay attention here. Lot, having received permission to live in Zoar because he was afraid of living in the mountain, now leaves Zoar and "dwelt in the mountain... for he feared to dwell in Zoar." Lot never struck me as a firm character, but this kind of cinches his pusillanimous way of dealing with life; always taking the easy and comfortable path.
-Genesis 24:34 seems to indicate one of two things: either men didn't get married very early in those days, or Isaac was a bit of a mama's boy and had not gotten a wife by the time he was 40! And even then, Isaac doesn't look for a wife or initiate the search for her - his father does!
-Genesis 20 tells the story of Abraham and Sarah lying to Abimelech, king of Gerar, because Abraham feared being killed for his wife's sake. And yet, he really didn't completely lie, because Sarah really was his sister, "the daughter of my [Abraham's] father, but not the daughter of my mother.]
Many years later, in Genesis 26, we find Abraham's son, Isaac, living in the land of Gerar still ruled by, you guessed it, Abimelech. Immediately, Isaac tells the men who lived there that Rebekah was his sister because he, too, was afraid of being killed for her sake. Isaac flat out lied and thankfully, Abimelech figured out what was going on and reproached Isaac for his dishonesty, pointing out he could have brought ruin on the land.
I wonder if Abimelech knew Abraham and Isaac were related and if he realized they had done the same thing to him. Regardless, he wasn't taking any chances and placed in effect a death penalty for anyone who even so much as touched Isaac or Rebekah.
-Genesis 27:46 is sad and funny at the same time. I guess Esau's wives were giving Isaac a hard time because he mentions, "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth... what good shall my life do me?" It is also interesting to note that the "daughters of Heth" were descendants of Canaan, Ham's son, who had been cursed by Noah. Isaac was a descendant of Shem, who had been blessed by Noah.
-Genesis 28:6-9 seems to indicate that Isaac didn't exactly do his part in raising his sons in a godly manner or teach them important things they should have known. It would seem Esau had no clue that he was not supposed to marry Canaanite women. Until, that is, he "saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away... to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters for Canaan."
Esau "seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father... took unto the wives which he had" daughters of Ishmael. Apparently, Esau was trying desperately to do the right thing, but had never been instructed what the right thing to do was.
-One interesting parallel I found was in how Isaac and Jacob's wives were found. They were both discovered at the well with their flocks. I'm not sure how Abraham found his wife, but wouldn't it be funny if he found her at a well, too?
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I wondered about Lot, too. My thought was maybe Zoar was also an evil city--maybe less so than Sodom and Gomorrah, which is why the angel spared it. So when Lot got there and saw how evil it was, he decided to go where the angel told him to go in the first place.
Or, maybe when Lot told his story, the people of Zoar were so incensed that all their "friends" in S & G were destroyed and Lot only escaped, they made life difficult for him.
Interesting thoughts.
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